Members of the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Regional Development were forced to go into a closed-door session on Tuesday over alleged lopsidedness in the Ministry of Regional Development’s budget.

The lawmakers queried the Minister of Regional Development, Abubakar Momoh, for alleged lopsidedness in the Ministry’s budget, indicating that 70 per cent of projects in the ministry were allocated to Edo State.

The Minister was queried when he appeared before the Committee alongside the Minister of State, Uba Maigari, to defend the 2024 budget performance and the 2025 proposal.

The lawmakers noted that the Ministry’s budget favoured Edo State over other states that were supposed to have benefitted from its projects.

The Ministry was also queried for nonadherence to the federal character principle in situating projects of the defunct Ministry of Niger Delta.

According to them, 70 percent of the Ministry’s projects for 2024 were domiciled in Edo state.

The lawmakers said this should not be so as the Ministry is expected to cover the interest of the entire Niger Delta region.

A member of the House of Representatives, Hon Matthew Nwogu questioned the minister on why 70 percent of the projects for 2024 were located in Edo State.

Nwogu said, “Mr Minister, tell us why most of these 2024 budgets (projects) are situated in Edo State?”

The lawmaker wondered why other states under the Ministry were excluded while the bulk of the projects went to Edo State.

Another member of the Committee, Rep Chinedu Ogar, also asked the Minister to explain to the committee on why 70 percent of the 2025 proposed projects of the ministry are also located in Edo State.

“Honorable Minister, I am happy that you are a product of the National Assembly. My constituents are not happy with this your budget because it negates the constitutional principle of federal character. About 70 percent of your projects are located in Edo state. Why?” Ogar questioned.

Chairman, House Committee on Regional Development, Eugene Okechukwu, urged the questions to be discussed in an executive session. The committee thereafter dissolved into an executive session to interface with the minister on the matter.

Earlier, while presenting the 2024 budget performance, the Minister had told the members that out of the N20 billion allocated to the Ministry in 2024 for capital budget, N2 billion was provided for zonal intervention in the Ministry’s budget by the House Leader, Prof Julius Ihonvbere, who is from Edo State.

The Minister told the Committee that the Ministry’s total budget proposal for 2025 was N28.9 billion comprising N24 billion for capital projects; N2.7 billion for personnel cost and N1.6 billion for recurrent.

He said of the amount, a total sum of N2 billion was reserved as a zonal intervention project for the Leader of the House of Representatives.

The Minister lamented that the amount earmarked for the Ministry of Regional Development to address the development needs of the five regional development commissions is inadequate.

He appealed to the joint committee to increase the budget of the ministry to enable it to address the development issues of the regions through the commissions.

The minister lamented that due to inadequate budgetary allocation, the ministry had been facing the challenges of a litany of abandoned and uncompleted projects; delay in project completion and poor performance. (The Guardian)